A police raid on Google Korea's office raised concern over abuses of Internet privacy. Police and regulators are investigating whether the Korean unit of the California-based Internet giant broke privacy laws. There are also concerns that the government may also exploit the data it secures from private online companies.

The raid came after Google's picture-taking vehicles arbitrarily collected unsecured email messages during its taking photos of streets here. Since last year, it has been preparing for a launch here of its free online mapping services, called Street View.